Netflix Reaches 60 Million U.S. Subscribers With Disney+ and Price Hike Coming

As part of their 2019 First Quarter 2019, Netflix announced this afternoon more than $4.5B in quarterly revenue by reaching 148.8 million paid subscribers around the world. The company added almost 9.6 million new paid subscribers since last quarter, however Netflix is only projecting 5 million new subscribers in the Second Quarter (compared to nearly 5.5 million the same quarter last year).

In the U.S., Netflix added 1.74 million new subscribers bringing their U.S. Paid Subscribers to over 60 million. The company generated nearly $2.1B in revenue from their U.S. streamers. In comparison, Hulu announced, which is now 66% owned by Disney after acquiring 21st Century Fox and AT&T’s stake, revealed last week that they had 25 million subscribers, of which 23 million were paid subs. Last year, Amazon revealed that they had 100 million Prime subscribers, but according to a report by Reuters about 26 million U.S. customers stream videos on Prime Video.

Despite the tremendous growth by the company, there are others trying to compete for share. Last week, Disney announced that their Disney+ streaming service would launch on November 12th at just $6.99 a month. Starting with the 2019 theatrical slate, all Disney/Pixar/Marvel/Star Wars films will become exclusive to Disney+ meaning movies like the live-action versions of Aladdin, The Lion King, Captain Marvel, and Avengers: Endgame will only be available to stream on Disney+.

The company will also announced an original slate including a 10-episode Star Wars series from Jon Favreau which will be available at launch in November. The first year will include 25 new original series, 10+ movies, 7,500 past episodes, 100 recent movies, and 400 library titles including the entire Disney Vault. Previously, many of those new releases and library films would have gone to Netflix as part of a distribution deal that started in 2016.

Also, in late-March Apple announced their Apple TV+ streaming service which will come in the Fall. While there was no pricing announced, it is expected that it may be free for those with Apple devices. The service will mix original programming and the ability to subscribe to other services through Apple like HBO and Showtime — similar to Amazon Channels. The company has already announced shows from Steven Spielberg (“Amazing Stories”), Oprah (“Oprah Book Club”), Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, & Steve Carrell (“The Morning Show”), J.J. Abrams (“Little Voices”), Jason Momoa (“See”), and Kumail Nanjiani (“Little America”).

Later this year, WarnerMedia will also launch a new streaming service building on top of HBO, while NBCU announced in January that they will launch one in early 2020.

Despite this, Netflix announced their largest price increase ever in January. The most popular standard plan, which comes with the capability to watch Netflix on two screens at a time in HD, saw the largest price increase, from $11 to $13 per month. While new subscribers saw the price change immediately, most existing subscribers will see the change go into effect over the next 30 days.

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